


Safety Dance Wrap Up

by MetaCat (OtherCat)



Category: Homestuck, Meta-Fandom - Fandom, Story Wrap Up
Genre: and references to sf, so many, this story had so many foot notes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-11 13:00:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16476035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OtherCat/pseuds/MetaCat
Summary: Wrap up for Safety Dance, a fan fic of Mortior's Endangered.





	Safety Dance Wrap Up

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Safety Dance](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6786502) by [OtherCat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/OtherCat/pseuds/OtherCat). 



There are fan fics that grab you by the hind brain and make you want to write fan fic of it, who knew! (Anyone who’s seen the absolute blaze of fanart after a particularly popular fan fic by a popular author, that’s who. As an example my tumblr dashboard was wall to wall Sollux/Rose for weeks after _Scarlet and Bible Black_ by paraTactician was posted, which is no surprise because SBB was kind of awesome.) [Endangered](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1797568/chapters/3854869) is a very popular fic with a lot of art and offshoot fics by other writers that I ended up reading after seeing it multiple times in the book marks of writers I like. (This is one of the best way to find fics, by the way.)

I was hesitant to read it because it had one problem: it had a roboapocalypse, and roboapocalypses annoy the heck out of me. (It’s generally some kind of Social Darwinist bullshit, some kind of technophobia bullshit and I am like; leave me alone if you want to live.) I was on an AR/Dirk kick though, so I eventually decided to read it. And I loved it. It had a great story, some fun interactions and lots of action. (And terrifying robomance.) I also read some of the fan fic-fan fics of the work, and of course reblogged the art whenever I could. I was particularly struck by [this fan comic.](http://mortior.tumblr.com/post/134667080581/br0bdingnagian-welcome-to-the-robot-fucker) (Warning, very nsfw!)

I instantly acquired a bunny and blathered about it for a while, before coming up with something. I really liked the idea of Dave getting a crush on Dirk, and then getting brought in by AR, because AR would do anything for Dirk, and this apparently includes getting him a boyfriend. (AR is very special like that.)

Something I immediately decided was that I did not want to shuffle Jade off to the side, which seemed pretty out of character considering how badly Dave freaks out/is freaking out at the end of Endangered. Instead, I decided to position her as AR’s opposite number so to speak, and have AR contact her and ask her questions about Dave instead of just going to Dave himself. (Does AR think Dave belongs to Jade? Yes. Yes he does.) I also tried to imply that AR does develop an active conversational relationship with Jade, though I didn’t push that as hard as I could have.

This story turned out to be one of the stories where I have a Strict Chapter Setup/Order. POV is Dave, AR, Dirk with Jade being a wildcard. It was going to be only Dave/AR/Dirk but I realized that Jade needed to be included if I wanted it to be clear this was a foursome. I think I did a pretty good job with that. Safety Dance is basically a rom com to Mortior’s techno horror/drama/forbidden romance, though it has some pretty intense moments. (As always, I’m not sure if my intense moments are intense enough or if my action moments are actiony enough.)

Most of my AR characterization is based on a) Dirk not being a reliable narrator and b) AR’s very obvious anxiety and wanting to show off How He Stopped The War And Everything in the last chapter of _Endangered._ I also wanted to show him having acquired some emotional growth along with his desire to ensure Dirk is Healthy and Happy in All Respects. (If you don’t have empathy, Roxy explaining how that’s supposed to work is fine.)  My AR characterization is also based on canon!Hal being a copy of Dirk and therefore, very much like Dirk except for being a copy and having a copy of Dirk’s issues and anxieties as well as his own unique anxieties. (Because he is inside of a goddamn computer and no one lets him be a Real Boy.)

I skimmed a lot over the Dirk/Dave friendship and the way Dave’s crush grows. I wanted the AR reaction and his interactions with Roxy more. (Also, the Dirk/Dave friendship would have required me to invent RoboAdobe layouts and other art stuff.) I also wanted to show how AR and Dirk’s relationship has evolved, with their discussion about Dave’s crush, and what was going to be done about it, and the repercussions.

 

You mostly get how freaked out Dave is about the concept of Dirk/AR by AR spying on him and Jade. Dave is clearly worried about Dirk, and seems to be almost speaking in code to Jade about the situation. (Give where they grew up, there’s “actually okay” and “okay,” and they are very sensitive and worried about the difference. This is also a hint about Lafayette being generally a nasty place, which is largely implied by the Endangered epilogue so I ran with it, coming up with a backstory for the traumatized Beta Kids.) This is mostly showing AR realizing he messed up somewhere because Dave is now completely avoiding Dirk and Dirk is blaming himself.

Because of Reasons, Jade is literally AR’s opposite number in that she identifies as being ace or on the ace spectrum. (The only reason she suspected this might be the case is because she read _Every Heart a Doorway_ by Seanan McGuire.) She really likes computers, is very curious about androids, and is not apparently very much bothered that AR was or maybe sometimes is a murderbot! (She is more worried about the idea of Getting Pregnant to Save the Human Race which is a HARD NO at this point.) Her POV was for points in the story where the other three wouldn’t really fit, or didn’t describe what was going on very well. Her chapters are spaced a little more randomly than the other three.

One of the things I would have liked to do is have more AR/Jade interaction and AR/Dave interaction in the form of chat logs. There could have been some more conversations with Alpha Bro and AR or Alpha Bro and the kids. I kind of wish I could have written out more of the pranks the kids decide to play on Jake. (I didn’t because I couldn’t figure out how to build the conversations, and it was less frustrating to just segue over them.) I am still working on pacing, Mortior was actually pretty helpful with that, largely I think, without realizing it. He also let me know where and what the Lafayette compound was, causing much flailing because of what I was attempting to get pictures of. (“Lol, Officer I just need these pictures from different angles of a prison because I write smutty fan fic!”)

The end is kind of flat for me, but then; my ends tend to be flat. (It’s a source of great frustration for me.) I may or may not attempt to go back and fill bits in a little. I stuffed in some shoutouts to various sf works, as you do, and made sure to footnote them in the notes.

Reader response for the fic was pretty good, though there was some back handed compliments that were a little offensive. This story had about the same number of “helpful” and “helpy” people as in other fics. I had one facepalm-worthy comment from someone who felt guilty for reading Stridercest even if the characters weren’t related in the fic. (If you feel uncomfortable reading a fic, how about you don’t do that thing, hmm?) 

There was one person who was so angry at AR…for being AR…that they’d continuously say how horrible he was, and I’d be like “…please don’t make me defend the teenaged sociopathic murderbot. Because I will if I have to; he’s doing the best an inhuman neurotic AI can.” It should be noted I will defend any character I’m writing, not because they’re perfect snowflakes, but because I’m writing them.  Also, there was one outright insult under the cover of “critique” that pissed me off so badly I occasionally accosted hapless members of the Endangered Discord Server trying to find out if they were “Alysse.” (Not to attack them, just so I could block them there and on Tumblr.)

The writing speed for this story was insane. I think one month had three chapters. It very much ate up the time for I think two other fics I was working on. I only had a few points where I needed to stop and rest and/or go work on another project because I was stuck, or something wasn’t working for me. (Always remember to save whatever you’re working on, even if it’s terrible! It might turn out that it can be fit somewhere else!) I am overall, very pleased with this story and how it came out.

**Author's Note:**

> The title "Safety Dance" pretty much came from the song and from the idea that they're negotiating their relationship and it's the opposite of AR's "okay, I can deal with this. MINE NOW" in Endangered. Or something? I don't know.


End file.
